


Operation Bake Sale

by cwxyz



Category: RWBY
Genre: Baking, Domestic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 07:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8970484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cwxyz/pseuds/cwxyz
Summary: When bad guys bake, things get weird.





	

_“Ah ah, no eating the dough ‘til they’re all in the oven!” Despite her stern tone, light gray eyes crinkled with warmth. “The faster you help the faster it’ll get done!”_

_“You’re my little cookie monster, huh?” Her face nuzzled into the side of his and she laughed, a lilting and borderline obnoxious laugh that always brought him immense comfort. Her face seemed fuzzy but he liked this woman; she was fun and sweet and smelled like cinnamon - or was that the cookies? Should they check on them?_

_It didn’t matter._

_“Mom! Mom, run!” Could she hear him? Her smile was unwavering as hands wrapped around her throat, back slamming against the wall. “Dad, stop! W-why? Stop!”_

_Why wasn’t anyone listening to him? If he could only reach him maybe he could stop him...why couldn’t he move? His feet were like blocks of ice - no, they weren’t there at all. Where were his feet? He needed them to reach her, without his legs he couldn’t -_

_“Arrgggh, fuck this!”_

Eyelids shot open at the out-of-place sentiment. The scent of sweets in the oven lingered, however, and combined with his own heartbeat echoing in his ears it felt like everything was all too real, and he was only a child who could do nothing but watch. 

“Not cool Mercury, not cool,” he muttered to himself as he sat up, ignoring the wave of nausea that fell over him as the dream began to fade away. The unmistakable aroma of cookies assaulted his nostrils, and it was making it incredibly hard to shake it fully. 

“Goddammit!” A yell was followed by clanging, and it sounded like something was being slammed against a counter. So that’s where those last few words had come from. With a groan he pushed himself from the bed, wandering into the living room of the dorm he was currently sharing with his teammates. 

“Em, the hell you doing in here?” He hardly bothered to cover his mouth as he yawned, instead stretching his hands above his head. The scene before him could be described as nothing short of a disaster - Emerald and the counter were covered in flour and various sticky substances, and she wasn’t even attempting to mask the obscenities spilling from her mouth. “Are you baking?” 

“No, Mercury, I’m building a fucking pillow fort.” 

“Chill Em, can’t a guy get some coffee before you lay on the snark?” As much as he normally got a kick out of taunting Emerald, he was still a bit unsettled and was in no mood for fighting. Despite the frazzled method in which his counterpart was going about her baking, it reminded him of the better parts of his childhood - and he knew she wouldn’t approve of his and Emerald’s constant antagonism. 

“Oi, people who don’t help don’t get any!” His hand was batted away as it reached towards the bowl of dough, the scolding causing his stomach to clench for a brief moment. It wasn’t as if he was surrounded by people baking after that point in his life - actually, he was pretty sure he hadn’t had a freshly baked anything since. Was it really his fault if the aroma and atmosphere triggered these intense memories? 

“I’ll help, then.” 

“Sure, whatev - what?” Emerald’s jaw went slack as he began rolling a piece of dough between his hands. “The hell do you know about baking?” 

“Pretty sure I could ask you the same, Em.” He gestured towards the mess before them, nostrils flaring as he sniffed. “Speaking of, you might wanna check those cookies, they kinda smell like they’re burning.” 

“Shit!” Her mad dash to the oven devolved into a resignated groan as she realized the edges were completely blackened, and she couldn’t even get a spatula underneath without chipping away at the cookie. “Welp, these are trash.” 

“Next one’ll be better.” Mercury was too focused in flattening the cookies he’d rolled out to take note of Emerald’s bewildered expression, which was somewhere between angry and horrified. Two things she’d never expected to see were Mercury baking and Mercury being nice, and certainly not both at the same time. Was he messing with her? “Here, you might wanna set a timer for these.” 

“Mercury.” A tinge of concern crept into her voice as she pressed the back of her hand to his head. “What are you doing? Are you sick?” 

He bristled at the touch, features tensing. Like hell he’d let her know why he was actually helping and being nice - no, no, even if Emerald was technically his closest friend, she didn’t need to know any of that. “I...wanted some cookie dough, and you said I had to help to have it.” 

“When has me saying you couldn’t do something ever stopped you? I was expecting you to be like, ‘nah, fuck you Emerald’, and walk away with it.” 

“Well...I like baked cookies too, and if I help it gets done faster. Damn, if being nice is going to get me nothing but twenty questions then is it any wonder why I don’t bother?” 

“Fine, fine, whatever.” Hands lifted in acquiesce, not particularly wanting to ruin the moment of lightheartedness between them more than she already had. “But you have to admit, it’s pretty out of character for you.” 

“Well it’s pretty uncharacteristic for you to be baking, so.” 

“Hm.” The oven closed on the next pan of cookies and she moved to stand next to him, both working in an oddly comfortable silence to prepare the next batch. 

“So...why are you making these?” Mercury’s licked his dough-coated finger before swiping the bottom of the bowl again, earning an eye roll and ‘gross’ remark from Emerald before she proceeded to do the same. The potential for Mercury’s saliva to be in there just wasn’t quite enough to justify not having some dough for herself - it was the best part, after all. 

“Mercury, were you even listening to Cinder?” 

“What, is it her birthday or something? You guys didn’t do anything for my birthday.” 

“Ughh!” She flicked a piece of dough at Mercury’s face and huffed, doing her best to suppress an eye roll in honor of this temporary cease-fire. “Tomorrow the festival starts, and she said we have to get everything in order for Operation Bake Sale.” 

“Em, that’s definitely not what she said.” 

“It is! You never pay attention to anything anyway.” 

“I am one-hundred percent sure that isn’t what she said. Why on Earth would we need to make shit for a bake sale? Are we trying to fundraise money for Operation Break Vale?” 

“Operation Break - ohhhh.” 

“Yeah.” Mercury didn’t even bother to hide the smug grin he wore as Emerald’s eyes widened upon realizing her mistake. In retrospect, the whole bake sale thing really didn’t make any sense, but she never bothered to question Cinder. “Aren’t you glad I said something before you gave these to Cinder and looked like a dumbass?” 

“Shutup, dick.” An elbow collided with his abdomen, signaling the end of their truce. The smell of unburnt cookies wafted through the air as Emerald opened the oven, and Mercury couldn’t help but shudder lightly at how they smelled exactly how he remembered. 

“Oooh, these ones don’t look terrible!” 

It’d be quite a stretch to call his team a family, but it was about as close as any of them would get to having one - he guessed he could live with it.


End file.
